Justice Amitava Roy was born on 1.3.1953 at Kolkata, West Bengal. He belongs to a family of lawyers. His father Late Anadi Bhushan Roy was a practicing Senior Advocate at Dibrugarh. His Father-in-Law, Late Salil Kumar Dutta had been a Judge of the Calcutta High Court.

He did his education at Dibrugarh. After completing post graduation in Physics from the Dibrugarh University, he obtained his LL.B. degree from the same University in 1976.

Justice Amitava Roy was enrolled with the Bar Council of Assam, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh on 20.02.1976. He had practiced before the district courts in the Districts of Dibrugarh and Tinsukia from 1976 to 1981. He shifted his practice before the Gauhati High Court in 1981 and since then appeared before the Gauhati High Court, the Central Administrative Tribunal, Gauhati and the District Subordinate Courts at Gauhati. He practiced mainly on the Civil, Criminal, Constitutional, Labour and Revenue side. He has a knack in Civil, Criminal and Service matters in particular. He had also been the Senior Government Advocate of the Government of Arunachal Pradesh in the Gauhati High Court from 1991 to 1996. He was a member of Assam Law Commission till his elevation. He was designated Senior Advocate by the High Court on 03.06.1999.

He was elevated as the Judge of the Gauhati High Court on 04.02.2002 and was appointed as Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court and took oath as such on 2.1.2013. Assumed office of Chief Justice, Orissa High Court on 6.8.2014.